SOCIAL SUPPORT AND IMMUNE RESPONSE IN PEOPLE LIVING WITH ACQUIRED IMMUNODEFICIENCY SYNDROME

Abstract

Aim: Social support is playing an important role for peoples those suffering with chronic disease like AIDS. So, the present study was examining role of social support in immune response (CD4+ cell count) of the participants. Method: Total 100 male AIDS patients on ART, mean age =33 year, range from 20-50 years, enrolled in ART centers of Chhattisgarh state of India was taken for study. To assess the social support of the participants Social Support Scale by Pandey and Shrivastava (2016) was used. The hierarchical multiple regression analysis models controlling for socio-demographic factor i.e. age was employed to analyze the obtained data. Result: The regression analysis revealed overall contribution of social support variance predict 17.1% for criterion variable CD4+ count; Whereas the contribution of emotional support variance is 12.9%, and informational support variance is 4.2%. There is significant positive association of CD4+ count with emotional support and informational support and overall social support. Conclusion: The findings of the study demonstrate the importance of social support on the immune response (CD4+ count) of People living with AIDS (PLWA).